Schorr Refused to Leave Poland, Citing Duty to Jews

October 8, 1939

PARIS (Oct. 6)

Count August Zaleski, Polish Foreign Minister, expressed doubt today over reports published abroad that Senator Moses Schorr, Chief Rabbi of Warsaw and principal leader of the Polish Jews, had been executed by the Nazis.

At the same time, Count Zaleski revealed that when the Polish Government retreated from Warsaw to Rumania, Prof. Schorr was invited to join the official party, but declined, declaring: “As long as I am the head of Polish Jewry I cannot leave Polish Soil, on which millions of Jews will remain.” The Jewish leader left Warsaw, but did not leave Poland, the Foreign Minister said.

Two daughters of Prof. Schorr who recently arrived in Paris from Poland told this correspondent that they were entirely unaware of their father’s whereabouts. They said that many families had been separated in the frantic evacuation under German bombardment. The daughters declared that measures taken to ascertain their father’s whereabouts had so far been fruitless because the circumstances of the evacuation made it virtually impossible to locate even the closest relatives.

The report published in a New York Yiddish newspaper that Prof. Schorr had been executed was questioned among circles here in contact with Jewish refugees who succeeded in escaping from Poland to Rumania. These circles pointed out that if anything happened to the Chief Rabbi, who according to Count Zaleski remained on Polish soil, then no correspondent or individual abroad was likely to learn about it since there had been no contact with the occupied zones, not even from neutral countries. The International Red Cross has only now begun to negotiate for permission to contact these zones to locate sought-for families.